12/9/13

As a recovering scientist, I absolutely love laboratory/medical thrillers--so the description of Good Intentions caught my interest immediately. How did the first book in D.N. Simmons' The Dead War Series stand up to my review?

Quick Summary of Good Intentions. SciTech Labs was handsomely commissioned by the United States Military to design a revolutionary serum that would create the ultimate soldier. If successful, the soldier would have an increase in endurance, strength, awareness and overall speed. They would become the true super soldier. That's if everything went according to plan.
SciTech put its best scientists on the project and gave them a time limit to complete the job or else. With the pressure on and the stakes high, Vincent Masterson and his team put everything they had into the project. Everything was looking hopeful until an experiment went horribly wrong. The scientists mutated their specimen's DNA, turning it into something monstrous. Now, life as we know it will never be the same.
As it stands, the only thing that can save the human race is one of the two things they should be running from.
Can the human race survive being caught in a bloody war between two vicious predators?

Good Intentions is a fast paced, action packed thriller. The author doesn't create deep characters or detailed settings--she lets the action tell the story--and this book is nonstop action from the very first few chapters. Simmons serves up a lot of thrilling scenes in a rather quick to read novel--and the storyline is certainly something that would do quite well on the movie screen.

Blood and gore--and what if's. I love lab based thrillers because science has the amazing ability to create the very beings of our worst nightmares--all in the name of humanity and "the greater good". Simmons offers very horrifying imagery, incorporating sci-fi zombies and vampires--all while using what could be: the terrifyingly plausible happenings in "top secret" labs.

Would I recommend Good Intentions? I loved it--and I'm not an avid zombie/vampire fan. Science has created so many nightmares for society--this one is actually not so far beyond the scope of reality. If you enjoy medical/science based scientific thrillers that are easy to read, action packed and fast paced--this is the book for you. There is a lot of gore--but, it isn't bloody for shock sake--it has a purpose in the telling of the story. It does end with a rapid cliffhanger--but, I think you will be ready and willing to pick up the next book!

AUTHOR BIO:
D.N. Simmons was born and raised in Chicago, Il. She attended Northern Illinois University majoring in journalism. She began writing short horror stories at the age of eleven and in 2004, she decided to take the plunge into the professional literary world when she published Desires Unleashed. She’s an avid fan of the paranormal and horror genre, finding vampires and shape-shifters fascinating. She’s been voted “New Voice of Today” by Romance Review, “Rising Star” by Love Romance and More and “Author of the Month” by Warrior of Words. Her work has won honorable mentions in catogoeis such as Best Paranormal, Best Book of the Year and Best Urban-Fantasy.
D.N. has a passion for crafting highly entertaining fantasy worlds her readers can escape to, filled with wonders, humor and excitement.